Nina Elder's Lists: A Collaborative Collection of Fleeting Thoughts

Original photo from ABOUT | Nina Elder 2024

 

    Nina Elder is a contemporary artist that injects curiosity and inclusion into her work in various ways. One of my favorite series of hers, Lists, portrays these interests in a fascinating way. She and many other local organizations, small towns, and individuals participate in the creation of lists of words inscribed in paper covered in a multitude of materials. At first glance, the words etched out seem random next to each other, but the question asked to provoke the words reveals a beautiful meaning of humanity.

    In an interview I watched of her at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Elder discussed what inspires her work in Lists. She described how she starts with curiosity in her work, deriving her art from whatever thought or question has been bouncing around her mind. The titles of her lists alone reveal the depth of her curiosities: Incomplete lists of things that are Exponential, Sensitive, or Fleeting. What do all of these things mean? These are big questions that clearly don't have finite answers, and seeing what a diverse group of people wrote down to fulfill the prompts shows just how expansive human ideas can be. For example, the piece An Incomplete List of Things that are Sensitive includes the following words: rodeo bulls, stock markets, liars, inner thighs, and myths. All of these words seem bizarre until you put it into the right context and realize that, indeed, all of these are sensitive things in some way! Scanning through the crowded, boxed in letters reveals just how separate but interrelated everything is, too. In no other context would these words be together, but somehow in this work it makes complete sense, which is incredible to see. It makes me wonder who these people were, how they chose the words they did, and how different each individual brain must be to create lists like these. 

Original photo from 

An Incomplete List of Things That Are Sensitive | DRAWINGS (ninaelder.com) 2019, 48" x 36", volcanic material on incised paper

   

    Another aspect of her work that I find lovely is her process of making the Lists. She starts by adding pigment to the paper with various materials, often from her surroundings outdoors and related to the subject of the list. For example, in An Incomplete List of Things that are Exponential, she colored the paper with pulverized meteorite, which is ingenious and provides a wonderful grey wash of color that contrasts the stark white words. In Things that are Fleeting, she used glacial silt, and for Things that are Sensitive she used volcanic material. Each of these materials is representative of the greater question the list answers, which is very clever. Additionally, the fact that the words are carved into the paper revealing the previously white paper beneath bends the idea of what is permanent and what is fleeting. The words themselves will stay as they are once inscribed, but the material coated on the canvas was used and discarded to reveal the words, as it was probably used endlessly by living things. The thoughts and questions Elder has that materialize into these lists are also fleeting, but they become permanent streams-of-consciousness once created for anyone to participate in when viewed. 

 

Original photo from 
An Incomplete List of Things That Are Exponential | DRAWINGS (ninaelder.com) 
2018, 48" x 36", pulverized meteorite on incised paper

    Elder's Lists are a mind-altering, honest, yet pleasing series that is still ongoing today. She has even expanded her work from 2D drawings to murals, billboards, T-shirts, and a traveling truck! With her ever-evolving imagination, I don't foresee a day when Elder runs out of big questions to ask in her work. 

Original photo from LISTS (ninaelder.com)
An Incomplete List of Things that Need to be Protected,
2019, 4' x 30' mural